American justice different for black men

By Matthew C. Whitaker

updated 8:53 AM EDT, Wed August 20, 2014

Protesters march in Ferguson, Missouri, on Thursday, August 21. The St. Louis suburb has been in turmoil since a white police officer, Darren Wilson, fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, on August 9. Some protesters and law enforcement officers have clashed in the streets, leading to injuries and arrests.

A crowd gathers in Ferguson on August 21. With the situation appearing to calm, Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the Missouri National Guard to begin withdrawing from the city.

Police escort a Wilson supporter to a police vehicle, away from crowds protesting Brown's death on Wednesday, August 20. Police have said Brown and Wilson struggled over the officer's gun; some witnesses said Brown had his hands in the air when he was shot.

Lightning streaks over protesters on August 20.

Demonstrators protest on August 20.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder meets with Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol at a Ferguson restaurant on August 20. Holder came to Missouri to talk to community leaders and review the federal civil rights investigation into Brown's shooting.

Protesters march through the streets of Ferguson on August 20.

Police point out a demonstrator who has his arms raised before moving in to arrest him Tuesday, August 19.

People watch from inside a restaurant as protesters rally August 19.

Police arrest a demonstrator on August 19.

Police charge into the media work area with weapons drawn as they try to control demonstrators on August 19.

A protester speaks to a police officer on August 19.

People on August 19 stand near a memorial where Brown was shot and killed.

Protesters march on August 19.

Police watch as protesters march August 19.

A demonstrator is arrested on August 19.

Police try to control protesters on Monday, August 18.

Police lead a man away during a protest August 18.

A demonstrator shouts during a protest on West Florissant Avenue, one of Ferguson's main streets, on August 18.

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol pulls his men back from aggressive protesters on August 18.

Police arrest a demonstrator August 18 after peaceful protests gave way to angry confrontations with authorities.

Law enforcement officers stand guard during a protest on West Florissant Avenue on August 18.

A woman helps a man affected by tear gas August 18. The situation overnight deteriorated after a handful of protesters threw rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at police. Officers responded by firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters.

Officers stand with weapons drawn during a protest on West Florissant Avenue on August 18.

Musician Nelly, center, joins demonstrators in Ferguson on August 18.

Demonstrators receive red roses as they protest August 18.

Demonstrators march on August 18.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson shakes hands with a police officer as he visits Ferguson's demonstration area on August 18.

A protester picks up a tear gas canister on Sunday, August 17.

Police wait to advance after using tear gas to disperse protesters August 17.

Water gets poured into a woman's eyes after a tear gas attack by police on August 17.

A man runs through clouds of tear gas on August 17.

Protesters react as police fire tear gas at them August 17.

Police advance through a cloud of tear gas on August 17. Most of the crowd had dispersed after a curfew went into effect at midnight, St. Louis County authorities said.

People take cover from tear gas inside a McDonald's on August 17.

A large group of police officers advance toward protesters on August 17.

A man fights the effects of tear gas in Ferguson on August 17.

Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, the parents of Michael Brown, attend a rally at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson on August 17.

The Rev. Al Sharpton hugs McSpadden during the rally.

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol speaks at the rally. He had been appointed by the governor to take control of security operations.

Demonstrators defy a curfew early on August 17.

Police fire tear gas at demonstrators after curfew on August 17.

A law enforcement officer aims his rifle August 17 after tear gas was fired to disperse a crowd.

People scramble as police fire tear gas on August 17.

Law enforcement officers check a building on August 17.

People attend a protest after the midnight curfew on August 17.

A law enforcement officer watches as tear gas is fired to disperse a crowd on August 17.

Police stand guard before the midnight curfew on Saturday, August 16.

People loot the Ferguson Market and Liquor store on August 16. Several businesses were looted as police held their positions nearby.

Missouri State Highway Patrol officers listen to taunts from demonstrators during a protest on Friday, August 15.

Demonstrators protest with their hands up on August 15. The "hands up" gesture has become a symbol in protests as Brown, according to eyewitnesses, was trying to surrender when he was shot multiple times.

Police confront demonstrators on August 15.

A demonstrator throws a tear gas canister back at police on August 15.

Police confront demonstrators on August 15.

Thousands of demonstrators march down a Ferguson street with members of the St. Louis County Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Thursday, August 14.

Demonstrators hold signs as traffic moves slowly past them on August 14.

State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson smiles at demonstrators on August 14. Johnson was appointed to lead security as state troopers took over after days of clashes between protesters and local police.

The Rev. Traci Blackmon uses a megaphone to talk to a large group of demonstrators on August 14.

A man picks up a flaming bottle and prepares to throw it as a line of police advance in the distance on Wednesday, August 13.

Police stand in clouds of smoke as they clash with protesters on August 13.

An Al-Jazeera television crew runs for cover as police fire tear gas at its position on August 13. Video and images on social media showed police later breaking down the journalists' gear.

(CNN) -- An autopsy report has revealed that Michael Brown was shot six times. It's among the few bits of concrete information released to the public, another being the name of the officer, Darren Wilson, who shot dead an unarmed and (by some accounts) surrendering Brown on August 9 on the street in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police have argued that their silence has been to protect Wilson from retaliatory acts of violence. After all, as possible 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson argued on Bill O'Reilly's Fox show, "Police are individuals, too. They have feelings also." They do, but Brown died without due process and is lifeless in a Ferguson morgue.

Matthew C. Whitaker

Even if Brown were guilty of stealing Swisher Sweets cigars a short time before his encounter with Wilson, as some have alleged, there is no death penalty in the United States for such an offense. But a young black man is dead.

We don't know all the details of what happened on that street in Ferguson. But for black men in America, the incident carries familiar, troubling echoes.

Black men occupy and distress the psyches of many white Americans, the way Tom Robinson in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" unsettled the white folks of Maycomb, Alabama. Justice, for black men, often seems whatever officers deem it to be. We remain, as the writer and activist Pauli Murray put it, "the pervasive irritant, the chronic allergy, the vague apprehension which (makes) one uncomfortable and jumpy."

Who started violence in Ferguson?

Video shows moments after shooting

Raising black boys

Spike Lee: There's a war on black males

Even as we serve as the cornerstone of American "cool," we continue to be seen by many as aberrant, inferior, threatening, hyper-sexed, and über-violent guests in this experiment in democracy -- still only "in" America and not "of" America, as the great W.E.B. Du Bois wrote more than a century ago

Regardless of what he may or may not have done, Michael Brown's very presence on that Ferguson street would be seen by too many white men as threatening. In what has become a customary occurrence in America, Brown's fate was sealed by being and breathing as a nonwhite man at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

According to a recent FBI report, white police officers in America killed a black person, 18% of whom were under 21, nearly twice a week between 2005 and 2012 -- more than twice the rate of such killings of white youth of the same age. The criminalization, incarceration and slaying of black people, in this so-called post-racial America, remain endemic.

Unfortunately, many law enforcement professionals and police departments, but not all of them, seem to care more about safeguarding themselves and their authority than understanding this dynamic and protecting and serving accordingly.

It comes as no surprise then that Ferguson police want to paint a different picture of the circumstances surrounding Brown's death. But as one protester's sign put it, "Ferguson police need better scriptwriters." Their release of Wilson's name Friday was viewed by many not as an act of transparency, but of placation -- and instigation: While naming Wilson, police conveniently released surveillance footage of a man, alleged to be Brown, involved in a strong-armed robbery at a local minimart.

The indirect message here was that Wilson could not be another cop with a jaundiced view of black males and an itchy trigger finger; he was a dutiful white male compelled to use deadly force in the face of a menace. This new narrative is one we've seen over and over through history old and recent: A black man, like Brown, is depicted in the foulest of ways to paper over institutional missteps and white male anxieties, and to grant absolution for the imperfections of both.

As historian and writer Jelani Cobb wrote in The New Yorker, "The parameters of this story have already spread far beyond what happened between Brown and Wilson that afternoon." Is this what concerns the police in Ferguson and beyond; that there are many who would tether this tragedy to broader issues of socioeconomic isolation, criminalization of people of color and others on the margins? That Brown's shooting would expose again the entrenched, systematic authoritarianism in a society that is more diverse than it ever has been, but still vulnerable to stereotypes and intolerance?

The delicate peace that had been achieved in Ferguson on Thursday and Friday has been erased by looting, a declaration of a state of emergency and curfew by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. One hopes that more unrest will not follow as more details of Brown's death emerge.

"What happens to a dream deferred?" asked the great Langston Hughes. "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over -- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?"